1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process and an apparatus for manufacturing a body reinforced with fiber-composite material, for example, a glass, metal or plastic container for holding pressurized gas.
2. Description of the Related Art
A process of manufacturing a body reinforced with fiber composite is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,559,974. In this process, a plurality of light weight, high-strength, inorganic, nonconductive and non-metallic yarns are wrapped lengthwise around a hollow body. A plurality of spools are arranged on a spool holder. The yarns from the spools are bundled together and, prior to wrapping them around the body which should be reinforced, they are impregnated with a resin. This process uses a duromer resin as a matrix of the fiber-composite material, not a thermoplastic. The disadvantages resulting from this process are inferior recyclability, longer processing time, limited shelf-life of the raw material, greater moisture absorption, lower temperature stability and less ductile yield.
EP OS 0060856 discloses the so-called spiflex process. In this process, a fiber-reinforced thermoplastic strip is prepared first. This strip is tensioned and then wrapped around the hollow body to be reinforced. The main disadvantage of this process is that the manufacturing of the strip entails additional costs and, thus, for economic reasons, the spiflex process has disadvantages, even though it uses the preferred thermoplastic as a matrix material. Another disadvantage is that, due to the width of the strip material, the application is limited to certain body forms.